Beyoncé and Jay-Z went to Cuba to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary last week, and critics have questioned whether the trip was legal.
Reuters

Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s recent trip to Cuba has drawn scrutiny from U.S. legislators who are demanding to know whether the celebrity power couple violated any laws that restrict travel for Americans to the communist island nation.

Specifically, the lawmakers cited U.S. restrictions against tourist activities in Cuba and asked what type of permission the couple received to travel to Cuba.

“These restrictions are in place because the Cuban dictatorship is one of four U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism with one of the world’s most egregious human rights records,” the letter read.

Given Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s status as American pop music icons, their trip could have been considered as a "cultural exchange," though Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart are strident about enforcing a U.S. tourist ban to Cuba.

“The restrictions on tourism travel are common-sense measures meant to prevent U.S. dollars from supporting a murderous regime that opposes U.S. security interests at every turn and which ruthlessly suppresses the most basic liberties of speech, assembly and belief,” the representatives said in their letter.

U.S. Treasury spokesman John Sullivan wrote in an email to International Business Times that the OFAC “is working on a response” to the letter.